steveo578

Richard You're right-:embarrassed: actually I used to caled it a Commer -but was told I was wrong on another forum- and having no backbone:shocked: I thought I mis-identified it. Steve

but there are some nice fortress guns at the Citidel in Quebec and at Fort York Toronto The M2s are probably maintained for Loyal Salutes and to mark Constitiution Day 17th May and Independance day 7th June. the Krupp 280mm guns (which look like 30cal) were fitted in 1893, an earlier Krupp gun a 305mm 25cal of 1878 was supplied in 1880 as the first of six guns but due to economic-supply problems the installation stalled and re-equipment did not resume until 1893 but even then only three further guns were supplied. There are two empty bays in the South facing battery -in 1893 these were probably used for a pair of 10.5in RMLs that were in addition to the three in the eastern battery -which are still in position -although they are no doubt re-fitted as the 10.5mm RMLs were taken out of service after 1906. There were also 4 Armstrong RMLs opposite the eastern battery in the Veisvingbatteriet near Drobak- although 3 of these were described as 223mm RMLs which is a strange calibre. I find it odd that the Armstrong RMLs were purchased by Norway even though they were in Naval service -Krupp supplied excellent M1867 to Helsinki in 1870. No doubt the actuality is out there somewhere in a Norwegian text. Tony: do you have any pictures of the pair of 13cm Belgian howitzers that were dug up in Victoria park Gernsey in 1978. Steve

I endorse your view, Back in the 1990s I was asked if a good home could be found for this and another Morris RUC patrol vehicle which was near Otterburn ATWG 2 O/P. Only Beverley were positive but they already had an example and a water cannon, at least one museum (no name no pack drill) turned it down on the dubious grounds that it was too ugly, I was told by one major player in museums that I was waisting my time because "the great and the good" were not overly proud of the British Armys service in NI, which IMO was an insult to those who served there. Steve

NO!! at best it's derivative -I would expect better from a bunch of "o level" students

The Breach loaders at the Jersey Cenotaph are 7in 82cwt Mk1 Armstrong RBL -there should be a 7inch 6.5ton Woolich made RML at Elizabeth Castle. All these guns tend to look similar but vary considerably - as an example the 7inch Armstrongs under manufacture when the Government were persuaded by Woolich that RBLs were unsuitable for service -particularly with the navy, were finished as 64pdr RMLs. The cost was not the main criteria, there were problems with power loss because orburation was not developed (this was prior to Elswick cup and system de Bange), added to problems with perceived weaknesses in the weapons requiring a lower charge,- unfortunaetly the Woolich people were the primary gun examiners for the government- so had a investment in preventing Armstrong guns becoming the prefered type. In defence of Woolich, Armstrong guns (both BL and RML) were built to a price rather than quality and were prone to failure as the bands did not interlock -which Woolich weapons did. The RMLs were extermely wide spread and many still exist notably in the former Dominions, Sydney/ Queensland and Quebec have some beautiful examples and of course many still exist in forts around the southern coast of England form Pylmouth to Dover. .As a type the 10.5in at Oscarborg was manufactured starting 1/1/1868 (In Britain new BL guns were officially discontinued in 1864) so was nearly ten years later than the first Armstrong RBLs and contemporary to Krupp RBLs -but it was a massive arms race, -at the same time Ericson the Swedish/US monitor designer had sent to Sweden two 15 inch Dahlgren smooth bore muzzle loaders firing a 450pdr shot (they were weapons to be fitted to the Union Canonicus class of monitors but had become obsolete). however they were never used as a naval weapon and probably not as a coastal/fortress gun- both still exist. I believe there are more than one 10.5 RML at Oscarborg one having been disabled by a Haft-Hohllandung or similar hollow charge device. For further information on Victorian era cannons see http://www.palmerstonforts.org.uk

I would have thought they were out of Elswick along with the mountings.

Does it really matter? if you're still "Antarmike" then we'll know who you are I used to use my given name on sites but after receiving some abusive emails I was advised to use an AKA in future - a case of "my name is for my friends".

With all the distress in the world I think their "leader" would have prefered them to sell the stuff and give the money to the poor instead of being prideful -the only place for dreams is back in the bedroom- and I suppose the quotation is the "new" modern version, :nut:

It's an 1868 10.5inch RML Armstong gun and was the original armament to the Norwegian 1869 Skorpionen class, Ericson style Monitors - Thrudvang, Mjølner, Skorpionen and the close relative Thor. the 10.5inch RML was also the main armament of the 1874-78 Vale Class 250ton gunboats - Vale, Brage, Nor, Uller and Vidar. Whether the gun shown in the photo was a spare or whether the guns were used a coastal guns after their removal from the warships I don't know, the Vale class were not disarmed until about 1910- (making the guns distinctly outdated) when they were converted to other duties some were used as minelayers, but the monitors were disarmed eariler.

I wonder if he ticked the unmodified box on the insurance form?:cool2:

Adrian helmets were used by the majority of none commonwealth allies during WW1 -French Belgium Serbia Italy and Romania- France Belgium Yugoslavia and Romanian 2nd line troops in WW2.

two possibilities 1). had spent the war in France assisting the resistance some Polish refugees in France served in the resistance but were not SOE supplied or trained. I know of one Pole who did this - as a valued asset having been a young doctor in Poland when war broke out, he was also multilingual. 2). was a processed POW, Polish forces recruted from wehrmacht POWs, oddly enough virtually no POWs were recruited by Czech forces, causing Czech forces to decline in number toward end of WW2.

looks like a small fuel air device to me

Looks like the car park (Lynford Road) behind the large sheds at the old RAF Catterick site.

Nice GPF. The converted mle1877-1914 was used by the Germans as K422(f) mainly as a coastal gun - I suppose dragging an outdated horse transport carriaged 6ton lump with a range of 13000metres would be fairly pointless -or desparate, I wonder if any got to the Channel Islands- also on the same topic the Canon de 105 L mle 1936 Schneider as shown in the "I.D. this gun" post on the artillery thread, was supposed to have been used on the Channel Islands (according to some publications as K332(f) any thoughts?:nut:

Very nice piece -but certainly neads some love and care:cry:, I'm pretty sure the muzzle brake was particular to the Romanian version. The style of the brake is very similar to that fitted to the enigmatic Schneider mle 1936 47mm a/t gun which was licenced built in Romania. There were only 160 in service in France when war was desclared in 1939, the French version was well used by the Germans as a field piece and converted to coastal gun both in shielded casements and open mounts and examples of both still exist in Norway where most of the then designated K332(f) served, the light weight of the design was valued in mountainous terrain compared to the more powerful German equivilent the 10cm K18. There were supposed to be some in the Channel Islands. I would think that perhaps a example of the field gun may remain in Norwegian colections. As to the Romanian version, it is possible that some of these guns went to Stalingrade as did some of the Romanian 75mm Vickers (barrow) anti -aircraft guns, so the type may have an important if not brief claim to fame. The Mle 1936 was exported against supplying/replacing obsolete stock in the French Army because of the poor financial condition of the French economy in the 1930s.

With regard to the "long tom" 155mm Scheinder Cie - Le Creusot French field gun the correct designation is the mle 1877 -which was a de bange breach fortress gun designed for static positional warfare, photo Janmad of 155mm mle 1877 at the Verdun Memorial wiki gnu release There seems to be some confusion whether the "Long Toms" (the British nickname for the weapons) were 155mm mle 1877 as one site seems to be confused with the calibre and even the type of weapon involved. The site states that "Silent Susan" (the Boers nickname for an individual piece) was a 120mm howitzer damaged in a trench raid and was returned to Pretoria and repaired by shortening the barrel- there after it was nicknamed "the Jew" . The Boer had number of 120mm Krupp howitzers which was a considerably smaller weapon than the Mle 1877 cannon. The other posiblity is that the Mle 1877 is being confused with the 120mm mle 1878 cannon which is visually similar but smaller- the mle 1878 lighter 55-60lb shells would not have been such a problem for the British. The 155mm Mle 1877 gun was extremely long lived, serving the French in WW1 as a fortress gun many barrels were fitted to carriages left over from a russian contract for the 152mm Model 1910 field gun and served in WW1 as the 155mm mle 1877-1914 Schneider which was further modified with a new barrel into the 155mm L mle 1917 Schneider releasing the original mle 1877 barrel to be fitted to another extemporised carriage forming the 155mm L mle 1918 Schneider. The mle 1877-1914 saw service again in WW2 in French German and surprisingly Soviet service. the De Baers mining Co. gun "Long Clive" still exists as a War Memorial, the gun was designed and built as a private venture being formed from a mild steel billet massively over engineered with a complex screw breach -its still a miracle in that it didn't manage to blow up. this post has been re-posted as the attachments failed for some unknown reason.:-( Steve

Hi Rob, There was one around the Pirbright-Aldershot complex of barracks in the mid 1990s and I think one at Strensham near York -for a while about the same time. interesting stuff. Steve

Like everything, it varies from area to area, you will find thieving Irish travellers (often refered to a Pikeys -which is about as offensive as using the N word to an African-American) who are criminal, in other areas other "Gypsy groups" have caused problems in my area we had a marked increase after 2004 when Slovak Sinta gypsies came to the north east of england, however the main problem is still white anglo-saxon chaves, they rapidly out thieved the Sinta youths in short order and are still at it. Steve

There was a D20 gateguard at one of the catterick barracks at one time perhaps it might have moved? Steve

They don't care- although in theory they can be put out of business if they are caught receiving stolen property or by loosing their Local Authority issued transfer (recycling) licence even on suspicion of wrong doing. I had various scaffold towers, several allumium ladders, a cement mixer and various other metal items stolen from my garage by local scrap thieves who drove up in a hire truck smashed the gates damaging a parked car to get the stuff. I was fortunate, my work mate and I are known (in a positive way) to the local police, the crime was resolved within 2 hours and most of the stuff was seized and returned thanks to a sharp eyed neighbour who IDed the hire van and one of the villans and local community officer spotted the Hire truck with the ladders still on top a few streets away. However of the two villans that were arrested with the stuff in a van they had hired, one was I.Ded by the neighbour as the guy who broke down the gates- 3 months later, they had threatened the witness and our excellent Crown Prosecutor dropped the case, basically she would not risk her conviction rate, despite the relevant fact that they had been caught with the stolen items - there was also some evidence that the truck hire guy was complicit. Snapper I really hope your lad and his friends get their instruments back, but don't expect the CPS to do anything about the scum who thieved them. Steve

indeed production ran from october 1937 to march 1945 allowing for the acceleration in design quite a feat -probably only the T34 could compare.

there are supposed to be some early L4s that have overstamps for .303in,7mm (EM2) and 7.62mm

There are far too many secondary school history beliefs regarding the results of the 2nd Boer War, whilst wanting to avoid anything too political, only the term "concentration camp" was invented by the British, the internment of "enemy civilian disidents" in "Kassets" was common place in many nations in the 19th cantury and earlier, but became more common with the improvement of transportation-(railways and steamships) the U.S.A used it against POWs (both sides) in the civil war and for the reduction of native population, the British government used transportation to colonys, notably West Indies and of course New South Wales, the Russians and to a lesser extent French did similar. As the the Lee Enfield and smokeless powder, the first smokelss rifle calibre round in general service was the 1885 8mm Lebel, its introduction post dated the 1st Boer War. The British adopted the the Lee Enfield in 1895 by modifying the 1890 calibre .303. Lee Metford to cordite use- this was done mainly because of the adoption of the Maxim gun. It is speculative but had the British adopted the smokeless round after the 2nd Boer War the round adopted would have be a 7mm (.276in) rimless round. as the .303 rimmed was distinctly outmoded by 1901. By then, because of political and commercial links with Japan, the British government and British commercial companies were toying with the Japanese 6.5mm model 30 round. The other major changes Khaki unforms predated even the 1st Boer War, subdued uniforms for none line infantry dates back to the Rifle regiment (the Green Jackets) of Napoleonic Wars. The British used horse raiders (Commandos) as far back as the Indian Mutiny. Indirect artillery fire (mortars) dates back to the 7years war if not earlier. As to the final point in battle skills there were not that advanced- from a self determination pont of view (and I really want to avoid getting too political) had the Boer won -with overt assistance from the Mad Kaiser the balance of power prior to the outbreak of WW1 may have been irredemabily altered, weakening the Empire-Dominions -it is significant that the Australians backed the British against the Boer -although one would consider the Australian sensibities would tend to the Boer-at least superficially. Had Boer independance prevailed it could well have caused the Nationalist (1948) apparthied government to come to power earlier.:-( Steve

No -but I'm aware that Armstrongs Elswick works sent an ad hoc design to the Boer War complete with its own volunteer gun crew.